Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1887-02-05
SOMETHING ABOUT AMBER.
What 1t Is and Where 1t Is Pounds
Entombed insects.
New York News

AsS oih
But what is amber? Two thousand
years ago Pliny pronounced it the fossil
resin of en- extinct confer, Succinum
pinites, and this belief, Endorsed by
Goppert, has displaced the romantic
and NEUROLOGICAL tear theory. Thou.
sands of years since a vast confer forest
extended from what is now Holland
over the German coast OF the Baltic
sea, and far into adjacent territory, and
on this shore the most plentiful de-
posts OF the substance are noy
found. The amber, CIR rather the
gum that formed it, exuded from
the trees IS we now see gun
exude from pine and spruce trees.
livery boy who has been spruce gum
ming can understand the matter On
the Pomeranian plains in the Haupt-
yaterland pieces weighing four pounds
have been taken from the surface clay
lear Bradenburg. This is one of the
finest deposits. A similar one exists On
the peninsula of Samland, where il
former times the crown claimed a
proprietary right to the treasure, de-
failing eendarmes to watch the seekers
10. ii, and allowing the finders only
one-tenth Of the value Of their dis.
coyeries.
As long ago as Nero's reign an ezpe~
dltlon was sent to the shores of the
Baltic to seek for amber with sig nal
success, about $4,000 pounds being
secured, nearly all Of which was OBJ
tanned from the belt hat runs between
Pillau and Grosz Hnbenicken, On the
coast OF Prussia. Here exist regular
mines of the substance. Somes of these
mines are 100 feet in depth, and extend
through strata of bituminous wood,
often forty to fifty feet in thickness, at
e great distance below the surface 81
sand and clay. Eere lie the trunks, or
the remains of them, of the extinct
trees, more OF less impregnated with
the precious resin, in apparently mex
haustible supply. There is evidence
that the old forests are now under water
far out In the Baltic, for after severe
storms the gum is found floating on the
water, evidently broken off from the
submerged base of supplies blythe
action of the waves. q
The amber fishery, if it may be called.
s. fishery, is a regular industry at such
times, and the fishers, like the little
old man of the nursery rhyme, clothed
all in leather" wade as lar out into
the water as their stature will permit,
and, with bag nets attached to long
poles, scoop in as much amber as is
within reach. Drag nets are also usede
to remove it from the bottom. These.
Baltic mines yield an annual produces
of about 100000 pounds, and it has
been estimated that the value of the
unmined supply is still worth millions
Of dollars. 1t is believed that not less
than 1900 tons have been quatried
during the present century. The amber
is packed in baskets and slowed away
In properly prepared vaults until de-
manded by the market. The records
Of n system Of these vaults run back
IS far as A.. d. 1890, and show that
since that time $4,000 tons of amber
been extracted from this Baltic |
bonanza.
The most interesting fragments OF
are those which contain the
bodies of insects and reptiles, vegeta-
Eia fragments and other Enclosures.
If, es Peter Pindar has told us, King
George marveled as. to how the apples
got into the dumplings what must Nc
have thought OF wondered when he saw
o spider SO perfectly intombed in a
solid and transparent mass of amber?
Any mi who knew could have told
him that the viscid emulation of the
tree, running its trunk, caught the I'M
lucky creature in an ur~relenting em.
brace, gradually envelored him ana
him down to a tertiary bed.
where he should lie for thousands O!
years, until dug up, tomb and all, to
figure in a necklace or a brooch OF
repose on the musty shelf of a scien.
tife cabinet. Many of them show eyi-
aences of having struggled to extricata
themselves from the clinging mass,
legs and wings being sometimes found
at a distance from the body. in a posi-
ton to show that they had become de-
tached in the efforts Of their owners tc